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Friendship
Media http://www.wqed.org/mag/features/0706/neighborhoods2.shtml Median Home Price: $152,500 Population: 1,791 Factoid: Annual Event: May Folk and Flower Festival Old-School New Urbanism Maps. Transit schedules. Grids, vectors and commuting times. When Drew Armstrong faced his first semester of teaching at University of Pittsburgh, the Toronto native scientifically plotted a search that would net him a handsome, well-restored home in a safe, diverse neighborhood a few minutes' bike ride from its Oakland campus. Shadyside? Squirrel Hill? Armstrong, a professor of architectural history, chose Friendship, "because it's diverse--it's not uniform in its population," says Armstrong, 38, who moved to Harriet Street from Toronto last August. "I don't have a car, and it's not a burden," he adds. The area reminds him of The Annex, the comfortably diverse neighborhood adjacent to University of Toronto. "Friendship's not trying to chase people out or achieve conformity." Whether they are revamping turreted Victorian homes, returning parking lots back to parks and even re-using the old public school--which will house the private Montessori School starting in August--the people in Friendship are passionate when it comes to protecting the built environment. Even the Victorian-Gothic home of architect Charles Bartberger, who designed the school, has been preserved on South Pacific Avenue. "The houses are larger than in Bloomfield," says Susan Petersen, drawing a distinction between her eastern Pittsburgh neighborhood and the one that lies between Friendship and Lawrenceville. "We're one of the smaller neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, just residential streets bordered by Penn, Baum, Liberty, Gross and Negley Avenue." Downtown commuters grab the downtown bus or stroll to the East Busway; Oakland academics like Armstrong can bike to work. Pittsburgh Glass CenterCredit local activists--many of them planners and architects--who saw the district's potential 20 years ago. Petersen is president of Friendship Preservation Group, which works with Friendship Development Associates, Penn Avenue Arts Initiative and other groups to protect the old and encourage the new. "An astounding number of properties have been rehabbed," says Petersen. "The Development Associates focused in recent years on the Penn Avenue businesses. We've had major victories in zoning issues, like closing nuisance bars and limiting the number of units in buildings. And we've planted lots of shade trees." The results have paid off. Home prices in the community have risen 127 percent since 1995, the biggest jump of any city section. For other walks, especially those with dogs, the destination is tiny Baum Grove, a green space reclaimed from a fate as a parking lot at the intersection of Harriet, Roup and Fairmont. Other residents stroll to the outdoor tables at Silky's at the corner of Liberty and Evaline for a happy-hour beer. The Quiet StormSome newcomers are young artists, whose presence could be a result of the Arts Initiative's conversion of more than 108,000 square feet of vacant property into artist workspace. With "Unblurred," its arts-related open house, PAAI is preserving the neighborhood's right to party. The Quiet Storm coffee house, Attack Theater and Garfield Artworks are pulling young alternative musicians, dancers and artists to lofts and rentals. Feel free to show those tattoos--here's where Friendship is most fluid, energetically mixing it up with Bloomfield, Garfield and Lawrenceville. "It's a quiet change," says Manny Theiner, who runs Garfield Artworks. "There's a real demographic shift of young people away from Oakland and Squirrel Hill and Shadyside over to here." category:where